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Chinese Demand for Illegal Rosewood Leads to Deforestation in Cameroon

Cameroon is just one of a growing number of African countries that is facing a deforestation crisis due in part to the trade in illegal Rosewood. Large organized crime syndicates are felling vast numbers of these prized trees, smuggling them across ...

“Fishermen Are Suffering, Families Are Starving” Due to Illegal Overfishing by Chinese Trawlers in Sierra Leone, Says Report

Illegal overfishing by Chinese trawlers in Ghana's coastal waters has been well documented, but now stakeholders in other West African countries including Sierra Leone are sounding the alarm. “The Chinese fleet has been taking the profits of the fisheries for 30 ...

Ghanaian Rosewood is Showing Up in China But No One’s Really Sure How It’s Getting There

Ghana's former Lands Minister, Inusah Fuseini, acknowledged that despite the ban on rosewood exports that he imposed when he was in office, large quantities of the precious timber are being smuggled to China, but he just doesn't seem to know how traffickers are getting away with it. ...

How the World's Most Trafficked Animal Is Caught in Africa and Sold in Asia

The small, scaly pangolin is the world's most trafficked animal. Poachers in Africa are capturing and killing vast numbers of these animals and illegally shipping them to markets throughout Asia, but mostly in China and Vietnam. In 2017 the Africa-China Reporting Project at Wits ...

China's Appetite for Abalone Spurs Organized Crime in South Africa

The demand for abalone is so extreme that it is commonly referred to as "white gold" and is now the world's most valuable shellfish. Much of that demand comes from Asia, especially China, where consumers can't seem to get enough ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

The G20 Summit and the Half-Life of a Joke

When it was announced in 2023 that the African Union would become a full member of the G20, I darkly joked on a podcast that the AU’s entry into the body could very well mark the moment the G20 lost its status as one of the most important global coordination forums. Mark my words, I said, soon The Economist will be like “Uhhh, the G20 is OVER – it’s the ...

Namibia's Chinese Ivory Smugglers

Namibia is the rare country in Africa that seems to be holding its own against ivory poachers. Whereas in most other southern African countries the elephant population is being decimated, in Namibia, according to the government, the number of ...